November 28, 2017

December, I Am Ready

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving, if you celebrate that holiday. We had a simple and quiet one, which suited me just fine. My new son in law came over with Sara and grilled a turkey on the rotisserie of the barbecue.

We had a small, just under 12 pound, turkey, which we brined ahead of time. It was delicious! The weather was so nice on Thursday, so we were able to sit outside while the turkey grilled and visit with each other.

The little quilt at the top of my post is one I made during Thanksgiving week. I decided I needed a small Christmassy quilt to use at the end of my kitchen counter, where I like to stage little vignettes. The pattern is an old one I bought at retreat when I took a class from Stacy of Buttermilk Basin. The pattern is just called "December", and is a Grandmother's Album block. That is what I call it anyway. A variation of that block perhaps.

I used some Christmassy Kim Diehl fabrics. I sure have been on a Kim Diehl kick lately. The squares are one inch finished! The finished quilt is only about 18 inches square, which is a good size for the area where I need to use it.

These are the squares laid out on the cutting mat. I swear I was afraid to sneeze for fear of mixing up that layout. I managed to reverse two blocks anyway, and had fun picking out the stitches and fixing that little boo boo. I posted a before picture on Instagram and my son Ahren in Ireland commented that for him, that center white square just wasn't working. So I took his advice and switched it up for a fussy cut gold square, and what do you know, it looked better I think. He has an artist's eye for these things.

My husband hasn't started his new job yet, so we have been working on decorating the house for Christmas inside and out for the past few days. I will post some pictures later this week. I think things are looking really nice! Hope to get the little quilt above quilted so I can show you what I do with it as well.

The turkey on the grill looks so juicy & delicious! I agree with Ahren about the center white square. The final gold one looks more 'natural' in its place. Ready or not, December is right around the corner!